Excel not saved – how to recover?

If you have not saved a workbook in Excel, you can usually still recover it. However, you have to be quick and pay attention to a few things.

Excel not saved: How to recover your data

An unsaved Excel document can quickly lead to panic. But there are ways to get your work back. In this article, we’ll show you step by step how to recover lost data in Excel, saving you valuable time and effort.

• Do not access any other files or programs and do not shut down your computer under any circumstances. Otherwise, the data may be completely lost.

• Start Excel and click on “File” or on the Office icon in the upper left corner and select “Open Recent”. Depending on the Excel version, this step may vary slightly. In Office 2013, for example, you will find the option under “Open”.

• Then click on “Recover unsaved workbooks”. Select your file and click “Open”. If your data is still available, you will find it here.

Recovering your Excel data: these are the requirements

To be able to restore an unsaved spreadsheet in Excel, you should make the appropriate settings on your PC in advance.

• Click on “File” or the Office icon in the upper left corner and select “Options” or “Excel Options”.

• Under “Save”, the option “Save AutoRecover Information” must be activated.

• Set the storage interval in the “Minutes” field to a lower value, for example 5 or 3. This means that changes are automatically saved more frequently. In this case, you may not lose all your work.

Find the Excel folder in the temporary folder

With a little luck, the file is still in the temporary folder. You can then search for it manually.

• Press Win + R to open the Run window. Then type %temp% and press Enter. This will open your system’s temporary folder.

• In this folder, look for files with extensions like.tmp or file names that begin with ~. This could be where your Excel spreadsheet is hidden.

• Open the file you have found using Excel. If the file is not immediately recognized, change the extension to.xlsx and try to open it again. You can then save your work.